MOSCOW, March 21 (RAPSI) – Legal defense for the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate, General Denis Nikandrov, who stands charged with taking a large-scale bribe, has appealed extension of his detention until June 19, RAPSI learnt from a court’s press-service on Tuesday.

On March 15, the Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow extended the detention of Nikandrov, the head of the Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko and his deputy Alexander Lamonov until June 19.

Extensions of Maksimenko’s and Lamonov’s detentions were also appealed.

On July 20, Maksimenko along with several of his high-ranking colleagues, including Lamonov and Nikandrov, were put in jail. Earlier, they have been arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of receiving a large-scale bribe.

According to the FSB official website, the agency, along with the Investigative Committee, is carrying out a probe into the criminal case against the suspects over alleged abuse of office and receiving bribes from some representatives of the criminal community.

In late July, various media outlets reported that Maksimenko and his colleagues had been arrested as a part of the investigation into a criminal case over extortion of 8 million rubles ($123,400) that involved alleged gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov also known in the criminal world as Shakro Molodoi.